Many Vietnamese remained in Cambodia after the war.  The Vietnamese population in Cambodia has grown since then to over one million.  Most of these one million "stateless" Vietnamese live in Phnom Penh.  Without legal rights, they cannot own land, they have no right to vote, and their children generally cannot attend schools.

Many of these families live in slums along the Mekong River which passes through the capital, Phnom Penh.  Since they can't own land, many resourceful families live in makeshift houseboats along the Mekong.  Jobs are hard to come by, and poverty is overwhelming. 

Parents are so desperate that they sell their children into prostitution rings. 

It's in this setting that girls, and also to a lesser extent boys, are at risk for being sold into sex trafficking.  This is an insidious darkness that now impacts an estimated fifteen million children around the world, with most of them being in Asia. 

Cambodia and Thailand are two of the worst nations when it comes to the sexual exploitation of children.   

The trafficking of children results in over 80% of them being infected with HIV before the age of twenty.  Most of them die of AIDS before their 25th birthdays.

For this reason, Operation New Hope has decided to focus not on the rescue side of this deadly equation, but on the prevention side.  

Five of the boats in the Vietnamese community along the Mekong River have been transformed into classrooms.  (Shown in the pictures to the right). 

These schools are houseboat classrooms that float near a riverbank where poor and stateless families live.  The strategy is to break the cycle by offering free education to  children where their childhood can be nourished and cultivated.

Once educated, they are better positioned to acclimate to Cambodian society.  This serves as a foundation to acquire marketable skills so they can earn an income without having to sell their bodies. 

These houseboats provide education, safety, and hope for innocent children who would otherwise be sold into sex trafficking.

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